GOOD PRACTICE GUIDE:

Purpose of This Guide

This guide is a practical companion to the Pride Space CIC Ethical Framework. It provides examples, reflective prompts, and standards of good practice expected from all team members. It supports:

  • Ethical decision-making
  • Trauma-informed and culturally aware practice
  • Accountability and supervision processes
  • High-quality, consistent service delivery

It is structured to mirror the Ethical Framework and grouped by key areas of practice.

1. Working with Clients

1.1 Establishing the Therapeutic Relationship

Good practice includes:

  • Clearly agreeing the purpose, terms and limitations of the relationship during the intake process.
  • Being transparent about qualifications, roles and responsibilities.
  • Using accessible, non-clinical language where appropriate.
  • Co-producing therapeutic goals and regularly reviewing them.

Reflective prompt: How do I ensure my practice centres a client’s lived experience, culture and autonomy from the first session?

1.2 Maintaining Boundaries

Good practice includes:

  • Clearly stating session times, communication boundaries, and cancellation policies.
  • Avoiding dual relationships unless justifiable and agreed transparently.
  • Managing endings ethically, with attention to abandonment trauma or systemic loss.

Reflective prompt: Where are my boundaries strongest and where are they challenged most often?

1.3 Promoting Safety and Wellbeing

Good practice includes:

  • Conducting regular risk reviews using the Risk & Resilience Assessment (RRA).
  • Collaborating with clients on safety planning.
  • Responding with care and transparency when considering breach of confidentiality.

Reflective prompt: Do I make space in supervision to explore my responses to client risk?

2. Working with Difference and Power

2.1 Anti-Oppressive Practice

Good practice includes:

  • Exploring your own social location and biases in supervision.
  • Responding to microaggressions or discriminatory statements within sessions.
  • Using language and concepts that affirm clients’ identities.

Reflective prompt: How do I respond when I witness or commit harm in the therapy room?

2.2 Culturally Sensitive Practice

Good practice includes:

  • Avoiding assumptions about identity, family structure or support systems.
  • Checking the cultural relevance of theoretical models or assessments.
  • Seeking training or consultation when unfamiliar with aspects of a client’s context.

Reflective prompt: Whose knowledge, culture or norms does my practice centre? What voices are missing?

3. Professional Standards

3.1 Confidentiality and Records

Good practice includes:

  • Using trauma-sensitive language in session notes.
  • Informing clients how their data is stored, used and accessed.
  • Only sharing information with third parties when legally or ethically justified.

Reflective prompt: How do I balance transparency and protection when documenting sensitive disclosures?

3.2 Supervision and Reflective Practice

Good practice includes:

  • Preparing for supervision with specific questions or challenges.
  • Reflecting on both successes and difficulties.
  • Using supervision to track patterns (e.g., burnout signs, boundary erosion).

Reflective prompt: What do I most avoid bringing to supervision, and why?

3.3 Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Good practice includes:

  • Choosing CPD that expands equity-informed and culturally rooted skills.
  • Logging and reflecting on CPD impact using the template in Appendix D.
  • Applying learning through action, not just theory.

Reflective prompt: How has my practice changed in response to recent learning?

4. Organisational Practice and Governance

4.1 Transparency and Integrity

Good practice includes:

  • Disclosing any potential conflicts of interest.
  • Avoiding over-promising or misrepresenting outcomes.
  • Taking responsibility for mistakes openly and quickly.

Reflective prompt: How do I respond to being wrong, or being challenged?

4.2 Collaboration and Team Ethics

Good practice includes:

  • Respecting different roles and lived experiences within the team.
  • Sharing resources, insight and learning openly.
  • Giving and receiving feedback with kindness and clarity.

Reflective prompt: How do I contribute to an affirming and accountable team culture?

4.3 Handling Complaints and Feedback

Good practice includes:

  • Inviting feedback routinely and non-defensively.
  • Participating in complaint reviews with humility and curiosity.
  • Treating all concerns as opportunities for growth, not blame.

Reflective prompt: How do I process client or colleague criticism?

5. Ethical Dilemmas and Decision-Making

Refer to the 8-Step Toolkit in the Ethical Framework (Section 6). Good practice involves:

  • Noticing dilemmas early
  • Seeking supervision promptly
  • Being willing to delay action if unclear
  • Documenting the process using Appendix A

Reflective prompt: Do I recognise when I’m in an ethical grey area, or do I wait until crisis?

Closing Statement

Good practice at Pride Space CIC is not a fixed state, but an ongoing process of reflection, repair, and recommitment. This guide is designed to support that work—and to remind us that ethical care is both a professional obligation and a political act of love.

Approved by: Clinical Governance Panel
Version: 1.0 (July 2025)
Next Review: July 2026